Mess is Mine
by mcmachine
Summary: The E.R. can be a dangerous place. No one wants a reminder of it. It happens anyway.


The rain was pouring down outside. Even inside, the consistent pattering from outside was easy to hear. It was normal weather for Seattle, of course, the constant cloud coverage often resulted in a downpour that left everyone who was foolish enough to get caught outside without an umbrella soaked to their bones. Despite that it was too easy for April to find herself outside, sitting beneath the cover on one of the benches with both her legs crossed. Most people took their breaks inside with a cup of coffee or something to eat to try and refuel for the rest of their shift, but something had drawn her out to listen to the rain. She didn't think anyone would come looking for her.

Slouching down, her head tilted back against the bench and she shut her eyes for just a minute. Even though it would be impossible to fall asleep just like this, it was nice to just allow her eyes and the rest of her body to relax. The sound of rain had always been soothing. She was glad that she hadn't just grown out of that since she had lived in the city for so many years now.

A hand reached out just past where the awning ended and felt some of the cool rain patter against her skin. It felt nice. If she wasn't at work, she might have been tempted to just step out in it and let it cover her.

Holding it out there for a few seconds, a sigh escaped her lips before she drew it back in. The sound of an ambulance roaring was becoming louder than the rain. Quickly heading back inside, she got into a fresh trauma gown and quickly tied it around her waist as she headed back outside to meet the approaching ambulance.

"What have we got?" April barked.

"GSW to the head. Pupils blown, weak, treading pulse." The paramedic answered quickly.

"Take him in and get near to pronounce him braindead, see if you can find out if he's an organ donor or not," She ordered quickly, motioning him past as another ambulance began to pull into the bay. "What happened?"

"Possibly the shooter. Armed civilian got him in the shoulder and leg." Nicole answered, shooting her a glare. She swallowed any emotion and gave a quick nod of her head as she assisted with pulling him inside of the emergency room to get him in a triage room and hopefully stabilize him. Good person or not, she had a job. She didn't get to judge.

Once he had been moved from the gurney of the paramedic's and onto one of their own beds, and the paramedics had left the room, it was just April, an intern, and one of the emergency room nurses. Hands moved quickly to try and stabilize everything that she could while he was until unconscious for either the pain or the blood loss, knowing that once he woke up, things were not going to be nearly as calm and they would likely have to restrain him for everyone's safety. She was surprised that the police weren't already there but medical care had taken priority.

"We're going to need more blood," April commented with a glance at the nurse. He quickly hurried out to get it.

The patient began to stir and April gave a quick glance at Parker across from her. She knew that he was a tough enough guy, that he had a background in the military, and he seemed like he would be good at controlling the situation if something were to happen. She thought that he had some good potential for trauma.

"Ugh, what the hell…" Grumbling from the patient began and he tried to move.

"Sir, try to stay still," Parker instructed, placing his hands on the patient's shoulders as April worked.

"You've lost a lot of blood," April began. "The best thing you can do right now is staying still."

The patient looked between April and Parker with wide eyes, clear panic to be found in the dark hues. He was clearly uncomfortable with the situation that he was in. A hand went flying and he hit Parker clear in the jaw, sending the intern back and reeling for a moment. April attempted to grab him and get it under control, shouting out for security.

But before she could fully get the upper hand in everything that was going on at the moment, there was a thrashing and adjustment that she couldn't predict. The male on the table reached underneath him and pulled out the gun that the paramedics had missed while trying to treat him, given he had been shooting with another weapon that he had dropped, a small pistol tucked into the waistband of his jeans. She didn't realize what had happened until the loud ringing of a gun going off once, then twice, filled her eardrums with a throbbing ringing from the sheer volume of the noise.

There was a moment where she was still, and then she collapsed.

"Dr. Kepner!" A security guard shouted as he entered the room, barely missed by the third bullet that was fired. As Parker got up on his feet again, the two men managed to wrestle him back under control, Parker removing the gun from the situation quickly and getting him held down enough that they could get him into restraints so he couldn't cause any further harm to any of the staff or himself.

April clutched onto her side where one of the bullets had hit. The second had only scraped across her forearm, but a bullet was lodged into her hip, controlling just a little bit of the bleeding.

The chaotic scene had gotten the attention of the other doctors who had been in the emergency room, both Hunt, Bailey, and Shepherd quickly barging into the triage room to try and figure out what all of the fuss was about. Bailey was the only one who didn't freeze upon seeing their fallen colleague.

"Hunt, Parker, get her in a triage room, now!" The chief ordered.

Directive was quickly carried out by the two men and Shepherd followed though it was far from her area of expertise. Kepner had been there for her with the brain tumor and she owed it to her to be there for her, too. Amelia was the one to reach for her pager and send a 911 message to Avery. She knew that he would want to know and be down there as soon as possible.

"C'mon, Kepner, hold on," Hunt muttered as he began to assess her injury.

"I'm alright. I'm alright." April breathed out with wide eyes, looking at the panicked faces around her and shaking her head. She had blacked out for a moment but she was conscious now. "Oh, god, that hurts." Words escaped her like a swear, cringing.

"Pain medication should be kicking in any minute," Shepherd murmured softly, wrapping one of her hands around Kepner's.

The wound wasn't terrible. Though there was some bleeding around it, it hadn't hit any major organs or arteries inside of her. Removing the bullet from her hip wasn't hard but it didn't take long for Hunt to realize that the bullet had hit her hip and caused damage to the bone there. A frown tugged at the corners of his lips as he struggled to contain his emotion over the situation. Kepner was like a little sister to him, the closest that he had to one for the years that Megan had been missing in action. Even now, he still viewed her in the same way.

"Someone page ortho," Hunt muttered.

"What?" April questioned. "Why?"

"It looks like there might be a hip fracture." He explained, giving her a sad look as he controlled the rest of the bleeding from the wound. "We'll take you up for x-ray and confirm. There's no chance that you could be pregnant, right?" He questioned, eyebrows raising up softly.

"Uh, I don't think so," she answered with a shake of her head.

"I'll order a test," Amelia threw in, wetting her lips and bouncing at the opportunity to do something to help, even if it was small.

Only a moment after she had exited the trauma room to get the test done to make sure that there wouldn't be any excessive risk in giving her an x-ray, the door to the room opened once more as her husband entered. Jackson's eyes were wide with panic. It had only taken a few seconds for word to travel across the emergency room with what had happened to April and it had been the first thing that he had heard when he had come down to see what the emergency was from Shepherd. Instead of seeing her immediately, he'd gotten bombarded with questions about if he knew how his wife was doing after she had been _shot_.

"What the hell happened?" Jackson yelled.

"The paramedics missed a gun on someone they brought in," Parker explained with a glance up at the other doctor. "He fired three shots. One in the hip, one scraped her arm." The latter of the wounds was the one that he was currently tending given its lack of importance.

"She's fine," Owen threw in quickly. "I just took out the bullet. No major organ or arteries were damaged. Possible hip fracture but it's hard to see without an x-ray."

"I'm fine!" April echoed, a weak smile given to Jackson, medication beginning to exhaust her.

Disbelief was clear on his face. "How the hell did something like this happen?" Jackson questioned. "Can we get her up to x-ray now, please?" He added after a moment.

"Let Owen finish," she breathed out, gaze glancing between her mentor and her husband. "It was an accident."

Jackson snapped on a pair of blue gloves as he stood next to Owen so he could get a look at the wound for himself and assess it. Gunshot wounds were far from his specialty given that he almost never saw them when it came to working in plastics unless it was the occasional snob who insisted on stitches from no less than the best plastic surgeon in the hospital. Once he had taken a look at that, the frown didn't lighten as he looked at what Parker was doing. The stitches were fine, good and consistent work, yet he still wanted nothing more than to push him aside and take over himself to make sure that the scarring would be completely minimal.

"Where's the guy who did this?" He finally spoke, looking up.

"Jackson, don't–" April began to warn.

"Avery, don't you dare even begin to think about going in there and doing something stupid. So help me God, I don't care if you're an Avery, I will rain down Hell if you do something to get us involved in a lawsuit." Bailey's words were much more menacing that April's attempt. "You shouldn't even be in here."

Of course, no one was actually going to try and kick him out.

"She's going to be fine," Hunt said firmly, looking between Jackson and Avery. "I'm making sure of that right now. She got lucky in terms of where the bullet went, okay? She's going to be fine."

"I am fine," April disagreed with a shake. "Can we just go get the x-ray?"

"Just a minute," Hunt answered.

Bailey looked around all of the doctors in the room, releasing the breath that she was holding onto though her hands remained clasped tightly in front of her. This was the kind of incident that she always feared to happen. It was a dangerous thing to work in a hospital room and especially an emergency room, she knew that Kepner and Hunt were both well aware of that fact. But something like this was still an uncommon occurrence. Hell was bound to be unleashed on the paramedics who had allowed this to slip through.

"Hunt, have you got this under control?" Bailey asked.

"Yeah, I've got it," he answered with a nod.

"Good. Because I am going to go tear a new one into the paramedics who brought him in." She announced, straightening her spine before walking out of the room with a firm mission.

A chuckle slipped through April's lips and she quickly winced in response. "I'm alright." She stated before Jackson could say a word, though his hand replaced where Amelia's had been a few years ago. "I'm alright as long as I don't laugh," she clarified.

"I can't believe this happened," Jackson began with a shake of his head. "This is a hospital. This shouldn't have happened. There are supposed to be some kind of precautions or something against this, to protect you, to make sure that this isn't going to happen." The rambles came out easily. "This can't be allowed to happen again. We need better security or-or something, I don't know what, but there's no way that something like this can be allowed to happen again."

Again, of course, wasn't just referring to this particular incidence. Neither of them had gotten about what had happened when Gary Clark had gone on a mass shooting spree inside of the hospital. Even if neither of them had been physically hurt that day, the memories that they had gained had left them scarred. Jackson had nightmares for a month even though he hadn't seen Percy or Reed actually die in the same way that she had. Yet he knew that this was going to cause a resurgence of the nightmares all over again. He couldn't fathom a world where he would have to lose her, especially to something so stupid and senseless as this.

"This won't happen again," Owen agreed protectively, giving a firm nod.

"I'm okay, baby." April offered up her reassurance, squeezing Jackson's hand and looking up at him with soft eyes. "I promise that I'm okay. I barely feel a thing."

"Let's get you up to x-ray now, alright?" Owen began, pulling his hands away and tossing out his gloves once he was done tending to the wound on her hip and getting it stitched shut.

"Okay," she agreed with a nod.

The arms of the bed are brought up on both sides and they push her from out of the triage room and toward the elevator to bring her up to the floor that housed the x-ray machines. One hand pushed along the bed, but Jackson's other hand remained tightly holding onto April, struggling to wrap his head around the fact that she had just been shot at work.

Even if they had both gotten lucky in the sense that nothing tragic had happened and it had been a relatively minor gunshot wound, one that thus far hadn't needed surgery and hopefully the x-ray wouldn't prove differently based on whatever injury to her hip had happened. They had gotten lucky, he knew that. But that hadn't changed the fact of the matter that a huge mistake had been made and April had been the one who had gotten hurt because of it. He couldn't stand seeing her like this, no matter what the circumstances were. It only made him think about how much worse it could have been for the both of them. A few inches over and they could have been dealing with an entirely difficult and much more challenging situation.

Truthfully, it was impossible for Jackson to imagine a world that didn't have April in it. He couldn't imagine raising Harriet without her. She was the mother of his children and the best that he could have ever had, such an amazing mother to their little girl, and an amazing person overall. His life would have been drastically worse if he didn't have her there alongside him and even imagining it for a few seconds was enough to grip him with terrible pain.

"Sweetheart, are you sure you're not in too much pain?" Jackson questioned, looking down at her.

"I promise," April murmured. "I'm not."

Given who she was, bumping her to the front of the queue for the x-ray didn't take any pushing. She was lifted from the bed and onto the slab for the machine carefully, not wanting to jar her hip any further or cause more pain.

"Wait, wait!" Amelia barged in, holding a piece of paper in her hands. "Stop!"

"What?" Jackson asked, brows furrowed as he looked over at the neurosurgeon.

"April's pregnant." She breathed out, looking over at the redhead as she repeated herself. "You're pregnant." The bomb was dropped out of the blue. Jackson hadn't even realized it was a possibility.

"Really?" She questioned, straining her neck to lift her head up.

"Are you sure?" Jackson asked.

Amelia nodded. "The lab results." She shook the piece of paper to draw attention to it with the rattle. "You're knocked up. One hundred percent pregnant."

"Wow." She breathed out. For the first time since the bullet had hit her, April smiled.

"Wow is right," Jackson echoed, running his hand over his face. "You're sure?"

"Yup. Kind of hard to screw that one up." Amelia answered.

"Congratulations, April." Owen began. "But you should still get an x-ray. The possibility of an X-ray during pregnancy causing harm to your unborn child is very small. And right now, you need a diagnostic one so we can determine the course of treatment. Ortho should be here in just a minute, but we need to know if there's any damage to your hip or pelvis." He reminded her, setting his hand on her shoulder gently.

April blinked in surprise, taking a deep breath as she processed the information. Owen was right, the chances were minuscule – and if there was a break in one of the bones down there, she needed to know before she got further along in the pregnancy. But after Samuel, there was just an ounce of hesitation.

"Okay," she agreed quietly.

"This is what you want to do?" Jackson questioned, looking down at her with furrowed brows.

"Yeah, I do."

The surgeons looked among themselves before nodding and allowing it to happen, all of them stepping out of the room except for Jackson who donned a jacket to protect himself from any x-ray exposure. It was a short x-ray to examine her hip and pelvis to see if there were any fractures in the bones there. The ortho surgeon on-call came up while she was in the machine, examining the images once they had been properly produced when she was out of the machine.

All of them crowded around the orthopedic surgeon, more than capable of reading x-rays for themselves. Squinting eyes examined the image to try and find something wrong with it, but there was no visible breaks or even hairline fractures on the image. Owen's need for an x-ray had been out of an abundance of caution. There was no break.

"You're clear," Owen announced, looking over at April.

"Yay," she said with a soft smile. "Can I go lay down somewhere for a while?"

"Of course," Jackson answered with a nod before anyone else could. "C'mon, I'll take you up to a room." He would make sure that she had a private room, though she wouldn't be alone in it – he wasn't going to let her out of his sight any time soon.

It doesn't take long to get her out of the room and down the hallway to the elevator, then taking her to get checked into a room of her own. He and one of the nurses carefully moved her onto a bed. It would probably only be an overnight stay, it wasn't even necessarily a big deal despite how the injury had come about. But the worry hadn't decreased any, even knowing that she was okay. The knowledge of a baby inside of her only made him even more worried about her and possibly getting into any kind of trouble, work-related or not.

"I can't believe you're pregnant..." he murmured, wrapping both his hands around one of hers.

"We weren't even trying," April smiled softly at him. "But I'm glad. Even if I would have liked to find out a normal way.

"Yeah, I would have liked that too," Jackson chuckled in agreement. "I love you so much, April. I can't lose you."

"I love you too, Jackson. And you won't have to. Not if I have anything to say about it."


End file.
